Solving the Sandman Problem - Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man No Way Home was the biggest hit of 2021 and it was praised for its returning cast of villains like Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Electro. But one character felt out of place; Sandman.

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[ytunnuyt]

Sandman was the movie Raimi wanted to make, symbiote/Venon was the movie Sony forced him to make, so of course the Sandman part is the one that works

[joshuasims]

When I watched it, my understanding was that Flint was eager to get home; he wanted the cube so he could push the button. He perhaps wasn't trusting that the Peters' plan would work, and wanted to take matters into his own hands to send everyone home ASAP.

[e-madart]

Sandman:" Where is the box Peter?!!?"

Peter:" Flint! We can save Everyone!"

Sandman:" I don't care!!"

Electro:" Sorry to tell you sandman, but nobody's going home".

So yeah, the villains in this movie weren't actually a team, it looked like it because of that 3 vs 3 shot, but sandman just wanted to go home

[noel.gonsalves]

The line is "Flint, we can help *everyone*", to which he replies "I don't care" which makes a lot of sense given his motivation to get back home.

I do think the way the money shot of Electro, Lizard and Sandman was framed is misleading because it shows them attacking the Spider-Men 3v3, but at no point did I think the three villains were on the same side. The framing of the shot is for fan service/promotional reasons, but Sandman is a complete free agent in the fight who's just after the box so he can go home and the Spider-Men are stopping him from using the box for his own desires, which is why he fights them.

I didn't have a problem with Sandman's actions in this movie.

[PirateJacques]

I feel like Sandman was just tolerating Peter's attempts to "fix" the villains, because it seemed like the fastest and most amicable way back home. But it was the moment Electro and Goblin freaked out in the hotel room, that Sandman was like: "Fuck it! This clearly isn't going to work. I'm done humouring this kid." And then just goes to get the box himself.

[drewforchic]

My read on Sandman in this movie is that he didn't care about the whole "redeem the others" thing, he just wanted to go home, and was too worried that Electro and Goblin would destroy the box that could send him home, but he also doesn't trust this Spider-Man that he doesn't know, so he was fighting to get the box so he could press it and leave. Which worked with his motivations, since he's just on his own side.
I do think that more organization between the villains and an actual sixth team member would have been cool, though.

[theimmigrant]

Honestly think Nando missed hard with this one. Sandman establishes multiple times he doesn’t trust anyone throughout the film, neither the villains or Peter. Even at the final fight scene, all he wants to do is take the box and press the button himself instead of destroying it to stay in this new universe like the others. He even holds back Electro while all the Peters are having the discussion about teamwork after he dropped a whole crane on him. Sandman never went bad, he was never on anyone’s side to begin with.

[Trickward]

I think you misunderstood this movie's ending. The Spider-Men lure the villains to the statue to cure them and the bait they use is the box. Electro wants the box so that he can make sure he isn't sent back, Goblin and Lizard don't want to be sent back to die but Sandman wants to hit the button and see his daughter. The villains didn't team up, they got lured into a trap with different goals in mind at around the same point in time. It's the reason Goblin shows up after everyone else, because they weren't all together. They don't work together, they simply fight the same people.

[covertTJ]

Sandman was side-eyeing Peter from the moment he realized it wasn't "his" Peter. "Why should I trust you? I don't know you!" All Flint wanted was to go home, but Peter stopped Dr Strange from sending him back. So for Peter to be set on stripping them all of power first probably put his guard up a lot more.

[IcyDiamond]

Honestly I feel Sandman was done fine in this movie, he never really went evil again, he was just scared as he thought Spider-Man would have killed him at first and he just wants to go home to tend to his sick daughter

[tommyosborne]

Flint was told by Dr Strange that they ALL died. Even though he doesn’t, he believed that he would.
He also wanted the box so that he could go home and see his daughter again. He says that several times about how he just wants to go home, so it actually makes sense why he’d want the box

[KrisMadas]

This video was a rare miss from Nando. They explicitly explained (in five-ish lines spread across the movie) that Sandman was entirely motivated by wanting to go home. His only goal was to have someone, anyone push the magic box's button.

From the start, he was apprehensive about this new Peter and his plan to heal everyone, but he went along with it because he's not a bad guy. He wants to see his daughter, yes, but he's not unreasonable or heartless. So he went along with Peter's plan until the plan stopped working when Norman caused havoc.

At that point, Sandman was done with the plan, hence his "I don't care [about healing the others]" line. Sandman no longer thinks the plan will work, and he just wants *anyone* to push the button so he can go home. But Peter still has the box, so Sandman has a "fine, I'll do it myself" moment.

From Sandman's point of view, Peter's plan was never going to work, and the box itself might get destroyed or something before anyone actually pushed the button (which is exactly what ended up happening).

Is this character arc completely reasonable? Not really, but it did the trick. And imo it wasn't that hard to understand what they were trying to do.

[cosmicmaster]

I thought the line was "Flint, we can help everyone" and he says "i dont care"

[savonlofton]

Just to let anyone who's confused know, they explain Sandman's motivation multiple times, "He wants to get home to his daughter." That's all he wanted. He even states he doesn't trust anyone. Both of these in mind, you can understand why Sandman, who wasn't necessarily bad, wasn't on Spider-Man's side. He wanted to go home immediately. He didn't trust and, more so, feared that Peter's plan wouldn't work which is why he didn't side with Spider-Man. He didn't necessarily side with the villains because they wanted to destroy the box and stay in our universe, which is why Electro drops a crane through Sandman at one point. Sandman in this movie isn't bad, he's just not on anyone's side. If anything, it would've been nice to see him fight both sides, Spider-Man and the villains. Other than that, don't really see why there's confusion

[Leatherbubba]

He wasn't actually working with the other baddies at the end. He just wanted the box so he could push the button and go home.

Although there is that shot where they make it look like he's on the villains side, which looks like something they just thought looked cool for the trailers, but they put it in the actual movie.

[clayshriver]

My understanding in the film never was that Flint had joined the villains. He just didn’t want to play around with getting home anymore and chose to fight to press the button before the other villains had a chance to destroy the box. It didn’t mess with me too much when he was part of that triple villain charge but I can see where you’re coming from. Definitely a piece that could use tuning, but worked for me on watch one.

[PieisDaBest]

Norman could've also brought up how Peter wants to "cure" all the villains of their powers. Since Marko's still a wanted man in his universe, it'd be harder for him to see his daughter without his sand powers.

[ryanmartin]

Flint hates Spider-Man because he loves dirt and he hates that Spider-Man puts dirt in Eddie’s eyes.

[andrewtaylor]

I’ve always liked Marco from the comics. He is very much the “Everyman” of Super-Villains. He’s a lifelong petty criminal and thug. With a trail of bad decisions. But he isn’t evil. He wants to do better. He wants to be better. He has this strange sort of friendship with the Superhero’s that he fights. He even has an odd measure of friendship and understanding with Ben Grimm, the Thing. In spite of being an old school Frightful Four member. The movie version captured that really well. The only detail that I don’t think they mentioned, but can explain many things, is Sandman’s powers do cause him to suffer some mental and cognitive issues. Almost a form of Schizophrenia at times with his mind being pulled apart and drawn back together.

[Chef]

He gave off the vibe that he was just getting impatient with Peter and didn't care about his cure anymore. Although I do agree him being more aggressive toward Electro would have made things better.